[Discuss] MS and Novell

[Thor Heinrichs-Wolpert]

Both RedHat and SuSe have employees that help Oracle work on the distro setup.  SuSe also maintains a mailing list and installation guides to help with Oracle installs.

RedHat and SuSe are similar in some areas (common core, kernel and some common packages).  Their approach to security is very different and they are going in different directions there.  Novell has also added SuSe into their Zen systems management, so if I was an ITIL shop, I could use that toolset and be 100% ITIL compliant fairly easily.  Our Linux guru has looked at the Zen stuff and found it to be very cheap, and that was without taking into account the time needed to document and setup an ITIL compliant environment without it.  Again, this is one item that has made it easier to consider bringing in Linux into these Microsoft environments as they don't need to spend thousands of dollars in showing compliance, as they can leverage Novell's work, like they leverage Microsoft's work in showing compliance with state standards.

Thor HW

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at vlug.org on behalf of pw
Sent: Wed 11/8/2006 12:34 PM
To: discuss at vlug.org
Subject: Re: [Discuss] MS and Novell
 
Thor Heinrichs-Wolpert wrote:
> Yes, I see a huge benefit to Linux getting into M$ shops.  I already see it here in California and the annoucement was just made.  The businesses here that are strictly Microsoft in the data centre now think they can look at Linux without extra security worries.  That SuSe already ships with Mono (.Net) applications further enforces the thought that integration hell isn't really going to be that bad, especially with Microsoft saying they'll offer support in that arena.
> 
> For Oracle, they have to perform a complete set of tests (a few million automated test scripts) as well as a number of configuration and multi-machine deployments for the RAC (Real Application Cluster) environments.  The business goal is to have paying customers buy support, but create a stable and easy to use environment that does not require support calls.  Reality is that people still call, but to give your support group a fighting chance of answering the call correctly, they will need to mimic the client environment ... so they have chosen a couple of distros to support based on who is using it (in the case of SuSe - IBM, Sun, and loads of their EU clients).
> 
> Locally we're a HP hardware client and can buy our SuSe support through HP at less than 1/2 of direct Novell costs.  Unlike Oracle offering RedHat support and watching the RedHat stock drop, the Novell stock wen up as HP is a Novell channel partner and uses the Novell/SuSe support channels (and pays Novell for the priviledge).  Everyone there wins and in the end it is similar to getting RedHat support from Oracle ... just Novell was able to use their channels to be part of the pie.
> 
> One thing you have to remember, Novell is one of the the very few companies with a stellar track record of beating Microsoft in the courts, so they are unlikely to get screwed in the deal as say Sybase, 3-Com, QEDM, and other have been in playing with the green giant.  Not that these others were small companies, they just didn't setup the legal partnership correctly and negotiated away the jewels without realizing it, IMNSHO ;).
> 
> Cheers,
> Thor HW


That's pretty interesting about Oracle. It really says something
to the developers of various distros regarding maintaining
some type of organizational standards comparable to other distros.

By that I mean:
a.)what base directories software get installed to
b.)how packages are cataloged on the system
c.)user permissions for various things on the system
d.)user friendly look and feel and clear menu organization

Is Novell similar to Redhat in most of these areas or
is the Oracle support just something that was negotiated
by these companies and they provided (or Oracle provided)
system templates to work from for that specific system,
or are SuSe and Redhat completely different ducks on different
ponds?

Peter

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